Tuesday, December 01, 2015

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things

By Kenneth McClenton

"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." Peter Drucker

It must truly be exasperating for Urban American citizens. Radical activists tell citizens that young black men are targeted by racist police. Until racism is resolved, only the overthrow of the US government will satisfy their demands.

From the podium in Urban America, political leaders and law enforcement officials ask that you not believe your lying eyes. The homicide rate and the unresolved homicide cases are rising.

However, violent crime is not the problem. Gang Warfare is not the problem. The lack of confidence in law enforcement officials and the criminal justice system is not the problem.

The problem is that we are not properly "prosecuting" violent crime in Urban America. We must change our philosophies to add "public health" to "community policing" which will reduce the homicide rate. We must get "millions of dollars" out of the Treasury doors and that will reduce the homicide rate. We must strengthen the gun laws so that criminals will only use baseball bats and law abiding citizens will never have access to the tools necessary to take-down a terrorist.

It seems that the podiums in Urban America are as empty as the sense of hope that citizens have towards their government. The coveted role of manager is pursued when the City screams that it is not safe. The absence of leadership is glaring.

The War on Violent Crime in Urban America has a tremendous number of managers yet, is lacking sincere leadership. In Shomari Stone's NBC News4 story, "Five Shot Within Hour and a Half in SE D.C.", the obvious frustration is emitted in the proposals of men that have practiced institutional responses to violent crime that fit their ideological comfort zone.

"The violence in Southeast has to be stopped," ANC commissioner Anthony Muhammed told News4. "We need more resources for the young people in Ward 8."

Before the elite District activists protest greatly about this prose, let us take a look at what some experts say on each of these proposals.

When community activists argued for more resources to fight the recent St. Louis homicide epidemic, my good friend, Alderman Jeffrey Boyd (D) responded in a very unorthodox manner to constituents. "We already have enough resources!"

Regarding resources, since September 22, 2015, the City has pumped $13.6 million into a social workers' war on crime. Mayor Bowser will offer “mini-grants” for non-profit organizations and individuals that work in communities hard hit by crime. DC Council's Committee on the Judiciary Chairperson Kenyan R. McDuffie, through his Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results Act of 2015, created an Office of Neighborhood Engagement and Safety. Its focus is to identify teenagers and young adults who are at a higher risk of committing a crime and help them seek and execute a successful life plan so that they don’t fall through the cracks.

The City spends federal and state taxpayers' revenue to the tune of $115 million to subsidize training programs, education initiatives and human support services. So that extra $14 million will go a long way to fending off violent criminals. Right?

Then, there is that safe cornerstone of crime fighting: curfew! Yeah, let's get all of the teenagers off the streets.

Kenneth Adams, The Effectiveness of Juvenile Curfews at Crime Prevention, writes, "Overall, the weight of the scientific evidence, based on ten studies with weak to moderately rigorous designs, fails to support the argument that curfews reduce crime and criminal victimization".

So, community activists should push for DC to implement such a law. Right?

The Juvenile Curfew Act of 1995 (DC Code 2-1541 et. seq.) states that persons under the age of 17 cannot remain in or on a street, park or other outdoor public place, in a vehicle or on the premises of any establishment within the District of Columbia during curfew hours, unless they are involved in certain exempted activities. Passed in 1995, DC's curfew law was set up to protect the health and safety of young people and our communities. After the law was challenged in court, MPD stopped enforcement until the court decided whether the law was constitutional. In June 1999, the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia found the law to be constitutional. The District began enforcing the law again in the fall of 1999. So how is that enforcement working?

The answer is very easy. Culprits don't feel any fear. They do not fear the citizens. They do not fear the politicians--legislative or executive. They do not fear your community proposals. They do not fear law enforcement or your judiciary. They certainly do not fear their victims.

What have they to fear, you ask. Only themselves.

This is a sign that Urban America is not safe. Where people lack safety, they do not worship, they do not live and they do not do business.

So that you get the drift, understand this. Less tax revenue comes from a lack of safety. Less revenue means either raising taxes to make illegitimate promises or enforcing the law to secure the revenue. Maybe we need to poll if I'm right.

"Crime has become the biggest problem in Washington, say D.C. residents, far surpassing concerns about the economy and the quality of public schools for the first time in almost a decade, according to a new Washington Post poll."

Well maybe it's just a concern about Southeast DC? No. Criminals think alike no matter their geography.

"Despite a multitude of differences in their backgrounds and crime patterns, they are all alike in how they think. A gun-toting, uneducated criminal off the streets of southeast Washington, D.C. and a crooked Georgetown businessman are extremely similar in the way they view themselves and the world."

The instability of SE DC becomes the instability of the remaining City. The Price Paid May Be A Lost Election. The question is who is willing to pay the price to continue to manage violent crime rather than solve it.

You know I'm right!

DC Chief of Police Cathy L. Lanier testified before the DC Judiciary Committee on September 16, 2015. She spoke of the Major City Chiefs (MCC) survey of its members on Urban Violent Crime and advised:

• Three out of four of the cities that responded had seen increases in homicides this year and
about 60 percent reported an increase in non-fatal shootings.

• The shootings seem to be more lethal. Almost half of the cities reported crime scenes with
casings from multiple guns involved in the shootout, many with high capacity magazines.

• Almost half report an increase in gang-related and retaliatory violence. As one of my
colleagues said, homicide has become a means for conflict resolution among the criminally
involved.

• Synthetic drugs have not reached all cities yet, but 30 percent of the responding cities
reported an increase in violent crime in which the offender is under the influence of synthetic
drugs...

• We are all seeing people who shouldn’t be on the streets because they have a significant
violent history ending up back on the streets.

Lanier received national attention recently regarding her advise on confronting terrorists with a run, hide or attack strategy. When "homicide has become a means for conflict resolution among the criminally involved", citizens must demand that government secure our right not to become victims.

Bob Owens, Bearingarms.com, referred to Lanier as the one that "lords over a city where snotty white liberals have denied the entire population the right to bear arms in any practical sense, in which it is almost impossible to get a concealed carry permit". The limitation of baseball bats as a tool of defense is unacceptable. Criminals only respect armed resistance.

Thomas Sowell writes, “Gun-control zealots are almost always people who are lenient toward criminals, while they are determined to crack down on law-abiding citizens who want to be able to defend themselves and their loved ones.”

Government has exhausted what it can do within the confines of the governing ideology. It is time for citizens to stand for our God given right to protect ourselves and our city. Activist theatrics, while entertaining, will not suffice.

Cultural Anthropologist Margaret Mead said, “Never ever depend on governments or institutions to solve any major problems. All social change comes from the passion of individuals.”

The answer to our violent crime problem is not to take away the liberties of free men but to bring into captivity those that seek to make a nation or city unsafe. There are better options.